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Should Euthanasia and assisted sicide be legal?
'Should Euthanasia and assisted sicide be legal? - 11/15/2007 (https://www.debate.org/debates/Should-Euthanasia-and-assisted-sicide-be-legal/1/)' Instigator: Lyndsee (Con) Contender: Ragnar_Rahl Round 1 Lyndsee: "Steve is a highschool student who has a bestfriend named sherry. Steve feels as if his whole life is nothing but a big mistake. He's always depressed, always feeling sorry for himself, and very anti-social except when he is around sherry. Steves life is so bad that he' seven considered suicide, the only problem is, he doesn't have the guts to perform this act on himself. Well, thats where sherry comes in. He is such good friends with sherry that he feels that sherry should get it over with for him. So he asks, and of course she says no, steve is special to her and she doesnt want to lose him as a great friend, even if he thinks of himself as a mistake." Ragnar_Rahl: "That anecdote seems to have little bearing on the legality of such things, only on the fact that sherry did not want to help someone who was merely depressed commit suicide. Life does not exist for the sake of any other person than the one who possesses it. As such suicide, assisted or not, is a victimless crime, because the only one who is directly harmed by it is a party to the commission. A victim cannot be a perpetrator in the same scene. Say a person has a terminal illness, such that their every breath is nothing but pain. If they wish to fight it out, I wouldn't tell them no- but if they do not, do you wish to demand that they be denied their only method of ending torture? The right to life has a consequence- that the holder of that life is the sole party to its continuance or discontinuance. To outlaw something, fundamentally, means this: That you are willing to kill someone for continued pursuance of a course of action. Sure, the nominal penalty may be a fine or prison- but what if they resist the fine or prison? Death is the only result. Thus to outlaw suicide itself, in essence means- If you act to end your life, consistently, you will be killed- an utter absurdity when the goal is to preserve life. It would be arbitrary to outlaw helping someone do something, when you don't outlaw the act itself- it's spitting in the eye of those who for whatever reason cannot help themselves." Round 2 Lyndsee: Lyndsee forfeited this round. Ragnar_Rahl: "erm.... I'm afraid I haven;t much of a response to that argument..... *posts random characters to move it along..." Round 3 Lyndsee: Lyndsee forfeited this round. Ragnar_Rahl: "same all over again. same all over again. same all over again. same all over again. same all over again. same all over again." Round 4 Lyndsee: Lyndsee forfeited this round. Ragnar_Rahl: "Well, it appears this argument is going nowhere........ and so I spam again and so I spam again indeed." Round 5 Lyndsee: Lyndsee has forfeited this round. Ragnar_Rahl: "Well, it appears this argument is going nowhere........ and so I spam again and so I spam again indeed."